San Francisco: Instagram co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom announced that he and another co-founder Mike Krieger are leaving the world's leading photo-sharing company six years after it was sold to Facebook.

Quick history lesson

Systrom and Krieger, who were classmates at Stanford University, founded Instagram in 2010. Facebook acquired Instagram for about 1 billion U.S. dollars two years later in 2012.

Instagram in June announced it passed a billion active users, and unveiled a new long-form video feature in a bid to attract "creators" like those on YouTube.

It became the fourth Facebook platform to eclipse the billion-user mark, including the namesake social network with more than two billion users, and the messaging applications WhatsApp and Messenger.

Facebook acquired Instagram in April 2012 for a combination of cash and stock worth some $1 billion at the time.

The partners announced their resignation in late 2018.

Why did they leave?

The co-founders were allegedly frustrated with how Mark Zuckerberg was running the business.

The Instagram co-founders have reportedly clashed with Facebook's leadership over the photo-sharing service's autonomy within the company, according to The Wall Street Journal citing people close to the matter.

The departures come as Facebook grapples with the worst crisis in its history, vilified for not more zealously guarding the information which users share.

What will they do now?

Systrom, who confirmed their departure in a blog post, did however not specify why they are resigning from the leading positions from the Facebook-owned company, which has grown from a 13-person start up into a social media leader that has more than 1 billion users.

"We're planning on taking some time off to explore our curiosity and creativity again," he said in the statement, announcing their readiness for their "next chapter."

"Building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs; that's what we plan to do," he said.
The two men's step-down represents the latest departure of top executives from Facebook. Earlier this year, WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum left the world's largest social media network over disagreements about user privacy and data-sharing controversy plaguing Facebook.

"We're planning on taking some time off to explore our curiosity and creativity again."

Systrom, 34, created the app in 2010 with 32-year-old Krieger, now the outgoing "chief technical officer", when they were students at Stanford University in the heart of Silicon Valley.

"Building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs; that's what we plan to do," the statement said - though several US media outlets attributed the split to a disagreement with executives at Facebook.

What did Mark Zuckerberg say?

"I wish them all the best and I'm looking forward to seeing what they build next," Zuckerberg said in a statement released by Facebook.

Systrom's fortune is valued at $1.4 billion (Dh5 billion) by Forbes.

What's going on with Instagram and Facebook now?

Instagram has been a hit with young internet users, an audience that Facebook is keen to keep in its fold.

Many see Facebook as having been a top vehicle for spreading false information in recent years, and of being used by nefarious interests intent on swaying elections such as the poll which put President Donald Trump in the White House.

The Cambridge Analytica public relations disaster - in which Facebook admitted that up to 87 million users may have had their data hijacked by the British consultancy - came on top of widespread criticism of the social network's propensity to spread and accentuate large amounts of completely false information.

Facebook is facing multiple inquiries from US and British regulators about the Cambridge Analytica user data scandal, and Zuckerberg was grilled by the European Parliament and the US Congress earlier this year.

WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum earlier this year left Facebook, which had bought the smartphone messaging service for $19 billion.

Koum said in a post on his Facebook page that he was taking time off to pursue interests such as collecting air-cooled Porsches, working on cars and playing ultimate Frisbee.

US media reports indicated that a disagreement with Facebook over the privacy of user data may have also been a factor in Koum's decision to quit his position as a high-ranking executive, and likely leave his seat on the board at the leading online social network.

In this file photo taken on December 12, 2013 Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom addresses a press conference in New York.
Image Credit: AFP

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